The Mounier family’s truly magical corner of vine, stone and sky in the last frontier of winemaking, at the foot of the San Isidro hills, on the outskirts of Cafayate, began 8 years ago with a production of 2,000 bottles. The vines are all high –altitude, grown 6,070 feet above sea level, and each vine barely produce one bottle of wine. José Mounier insists that all the work in the vineyards is manual, forbidding the entrance of machines and the use of herbicides or inorganic fertilizers. This is one of the few true boutique wineries in Cafayate, and as they sell 40% of their wine at the winery, quantities available to the United States will always remain extremely low.

When wine people talk about “high altitude vineyards” they are usually talking about Mendoza. Very few know about Argentina’s true high altitude vineyards, in Cafayate, province of Salta, in the far North of Argentina. Here, in the wild Calchaquíes Valleys, approximately 10,000 acres of vineyards sit at altitudes ranging from an incredible 5,600 to 9,200 feet.

JL Mounier Blend 2004

A blend of 60% Malbec, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Tannat, this wine holds Mounier’s pride of place. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks with selected yeasts for 4 weeks, with two daily punch downs and malolactic fermentation in the same tank. It then spends 12 months in French oak. The wine is of an intense garnet-red. It has a very elegant nose, with complex and delicate aromas confit berries, quince, and peppery earthy touches, all in good balance with the oak and its delicate vanilla and chocolate aromas. In the mouth this wine has great body, with similar flavors to those on the nose, very good acidity, and well-developed tannins. It has a long and persistent finish. This is a world class wine that demonstrates the characteristics of the unique land from where it comes.

Stephen Tanzer rated this wine 87 points, saying that it has a bright ruby-red color with musky aromas of black plum, licorice, herbs and nutty oak, with a slightly inky medicinal quality. Juicy, firm-edged black fruit flavors are currently (reviewed in 2008) a bit ungiving, with edgy acidity yet to be absorbed. Offers good intensity.